The vast majority of silk screen printings are used for design with the use of solid colours.

A screen is made of porous, finely woven fabric (originally silk, but typically made of polyester or nylon) stretched over an aluminium frame.

Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable material (a stencil), this is a positive of the image to be printed, open spaces indicate where the ink appears

The screen is placed on top of the disc

Ink is placed on top of the screen and a rubber blade (squeegee) is used to push the ink evenly into the screen openings and onto the disc

The ink passes through the open spaces in the screen onto the disc below

If more than one colour is being printed on the same surface, the ink is rapidly dried under a UV lamp

The process is repeated with another screen and different colour ink

Litho Printing

Litho (offset) printing is a widely used printing technique where the linked image is transferred (or offset) from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface.

When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat (planographic) image carrier on which the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers. The non-printing area attracts a film of water so this is kept ink-free.

Litho printing is mainly used for more complicated designs where images need to be very clearly defined.

The advantage of offset printing is that the different images in the design will be separated and not run together.